International withdrawals - the Czech way.

Bournemouth Addick

Frankly unbelievable they thought they could get away with this. You would expect the book to be thrown at them...

"Sparta Prague withdrew Czech duo Tomas Pekhart and Vaclav Kadlec and Croatian defender Manuel Pamic from international duty for fitness reasons this week - then fielded all three in a friendly against Zenit St Petersburg in Spain on Wednesday.

In an apparent attempt to disguise the players’ identities, their names didn’t appear on the teamsheet and the three wore jerseys with teammates’ names on them - Pamic playing as Jakub Podany, Kadlec as Pavel Kaderabek and, most bizarrely of all, Pekhart, who is white, as black Cameroonian midfielder Martin Abena.

Sparta’s plan seems to have been rumbled when a Czech journalist recognized the players in photos posted on Zenit's website."

ISawLeaburnScore

Immense!

Bournemouth Addick

If we get to the play offs maybe we could try passing off Messi as Racon and hope no one notices?

RodneyCharltonTrotta

Surely playing for your country at international level is the pinnacle of any footballer. Cant get my head around how the players went along with it.

PragueAddick

First I heard of this, and i'll check it out, but to answer Rodney, the players wont have had much choice. They get paid very little by British standards, but they are well off in Czech society, and they dont want to risk that status by going against their bosses. Sparta as a club is arrogance, distilled. Too bad I wont get to see JonJo helpig Liverpool to stuff them.

Mortimerician

The sooner everyone admits that international friendlies are the exclusive province of unlikely-to-make-the-final-cut rapists like Carlton Cole, the better.

Algarveaddick

Might want to edit that last quote in the cold light of day...